 The territory was fiercely contested by Lithuania and Poland.In demographic terms the city of Vilnius was the least Lithuanian of Lithuanian cities, divided nearly evenly between Poles and Jews, with ethnic Lithuanians constituting a mere fraction of the total population (about 2–3% of the population, according to Russian 1897 and German 1916 censuses).The Lithuanians nonetheless believed that their historical claim to the city (former capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) had precedence and refused to recognize any Polish claims to the city and the surrounding area.